Yesterday, a pair of school packages crossed vital numerical milestones, ones which mix teaching longevity, on-field expertise, and the willingness of universities to put money into the sport of area hockey.
WIth a 3-0 street win yesterday at Indiana, the College of Maryland turned the second Division I group to achieve 800 wins as a program. And with a 3-2 win yesterday over Holy Cross, Sally Starr gained her five hundredth profession sport at Boston College.
These are some fairly wonderful numbers which deserve a look-see, particularly on the subject of the acumen of the top coaches — Starr at Boston College, and Missy Meharg of Maryland.
Each of those ladies have put many years into their craft. It’s fairly dizzying to see the shifts within the school sport, particularly the change in sanctioning from the AIAW to the NCAA in 1982. And should you check out among the early video games in each Boston College’s and Maryland’s histories, you see universities like Gallaudet, Trinity, and Rhode Island which not provide area hockey.
You additionally see nice successes. Meharg and Sue Tyler have introduced the Terps eight nationwide championships, whereas Starr has guided the Terriers to 14 NCAA Tournaments and the 1987 ECAC area hockey championship.
This, in addition to foresight by their respective universities, have yielded some wonderful house services for each of those packages — the Subject Hockey and Lacrosse Advanced in Faculty Park, Md., and New Stability Subject in Allston, Mass.
I believe, nevertheless, that there are another parallels between these two collegiate packages and their well-respected head coaches. One is the truth that Meharg and Starr, like many profitable individuals, encompass themselves with nice assistants.
Starr’s assistant coach, Tracey Paul, has been at BU for twenty years after her stellar scholastic profession at Escondido San Pasqual (Calif.), and has been a coach for the U.S. junior nationwide group, most lately between 2021 and 2023.
Meharg’s affiliate head coach is Scott Tupper, who took the Canadian males’s area hockey group to 3 Olympics, scoring 126 objectives in 322 worldwide appearances. Jenny Rizzo, the goalkeeping coach at Maryland, was within the U.S. ladies’s nationwide group pool for the previous few years.
One other commonality is that each groups have alumnae as a part of their packages — Liz Ryan at Boston College, Kasey (Tapman) Asper at Maryland.
However one factor that, I believe, serves as an attention-grabbing parallel is that each Starr and Meharg loved vital success in different sports activities. Each performed lacrosse at a excessive degree — Meharg captaining the College of Delaware, and Starr taking part in for the U.S. ladies’s nationwide facet within the late 70s.
They’re individuals who acknowledge the worth of the well-rounded and expert athlete, and have developed quite a few gamers over their careers.
A hearty “Effectively-played!” from this nook to the Boston College and Maryland packages and their milestones.